Deformation Spaces of Hyperbolic 3-manifolds

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

DMS-0204763Kenneth BrombergThe investigator plans to study spaces of hyperbolic metrics on a fixed3-manifold. Unlike on a closed manifold, on an open 3-manifold there willtypically be a large space of hyperbolic metrics. The investigatorsgoal is to understand this space. Some questions are simple to state:Is the deformation space the closure of its interior? A more detaileddescription of the space is the ending lamination conjecture,which gives invariants that classify every hyperbolic metric onthe manifold. This classification is not a parameterization; the map tothe space of invariants is not continuous. The investigator isinterested in understanding these discontinuities and describing thetopology of the deformation space of metrics. Hyperbolic cone-metricsare a key tool used throughout this work. The philosophy is that verycomplicated geometry in a smooth hyperbolic structure can be exchangedfor a less complicated, but singular, hyperbolic cone metric.Three manifolds are mathematical spaces that locally look like theuniverse we live in. Mathematicians, beginning with Poincare, have beeninterested in classification question about three manifolds. Hyperbolicgeometry is also a very old field dating back to the middle of theeighteenth century. In the last twenty-five years, largely due to the workThurston, it has been realized that there are deep and beautifulconnections between the two topics.